A Wonderful Train Journey Across Vast Australia

We made a two-week trip to Perth and Western Australia in 2002 that included a transcontinental train journey across this vast island-nation, something that we did in the U.S. on our way to our new home in Australia and wanted to replicate here.

   Among other things, the train trip gives you an appreciation of how big Australia is (as big as the continental U.S.) and how empty its vast “red interior” is. The state of Western Australia alone is as large as a third of the “lower 48” U.S. states.

   The trip on the luxurious Indian Pacific train took three nights from Melbourne to Perth, the longest segment being Nullarbor Plain, which contains the longest straight stretch of railroad track in the world. After leaving Adelaide, on the south coast, the scenery slowly changes from typical Australian bush (gum trees, wattle etc. reminiscent of the African savanna) to treeless scrub desert and salt pans. The word “desolate” barely suffices. It’s mile after mile of mostly uninhabited land where remote sheep and cattle stations are measured in hundreds of thousands of square miles (or kilometers).

  The train stopped for water and a crew change in Cook (pop. 4), a once-thriving railroad town that is essentially a ghost town now with numerous derelict buildings. We made a 2 ½-hour stop in Kalgoorlie, a rough-and-tumble gold mining town with a huge open-pit mining operation, plenty of saloons and three or four brothels. A bit kitschy in its old-time look, but interesting nonetheless.

The train trip was fun—not nearly as boring as it might seem because there were plenty of interesting people to meet and chat up in the lounge and dining cars. Australians and Brits mainly.

    When we got to Perth we rented a car and immediately headed for nearby Fremantle, scene of the America’s Cup debacle of 1987. Fremantle is a lovely old city, built in large part of sandstone blocks by convict labor in the 1800s. For the next week or so we drove along the southwest coast, to lovely old whaling towns like Mandurah, Bunbury, Augusta and Albany. We spent some time in the Margaret River wine country, visited some vineyards and bought some very good wine. In the Pemberton area we visited beautiful Karri tree forests and went on the famous Tree Top Walk—a swaying, steel suspension walkway erected 125 feet at treetop level which literally provides a birds-eye view of the forest. A very impressive view looking down on the top of a rain forest canopy.

     We spent a couple of nights in Albany, where we had one very unproductive whalewatching trip aboard a catamaran, followed the next day by a great trip out on the same boat. This time one large Southern Right Whale breached several times for us, leaping out of the water and flipping onto its back. Another swam right up to our boat and gently rubbed against it. He seemed very friendly (or curious--hard to tell which). Two more whales swam side by side close by. In all, a very spectacular sight (see photos on the next page).

We then drove inland to a couple hundred kilometers north of Perth through mostly bush country. After driving through very desolate country for quite a while we were surprised to suddenly see the very imposing Spanish-Moorish architecture of a very large Catalan monastery of Benedictine monks at New Norcia. Once run as a missionary that housed (and proselytized, of course) aboriginal children who were forcibly removed from their families, the place now has only 16 monks but is used as a retreat and has a great museum and guided tour. Very interesting place, and quite incongruous to its setting.

   Eventually, we found ourselves back in Perth, where we cruised on the Swan River, ate a great meal at the commendable Fraser’s Restaurant, walked endlessly and generally just enjoyed this lovely little (1.5 million pop.) city for a couple of days. Then  we flew home to Melbourne.

    And now to the photos:

Much of the desert across Australia looked like this	Alma stretches her legs somewhere in the desert
The three-day journey across the Great Nullarbor Plain	Here was plenty of time to relax, read and watch the scenery
The wild, wild desert of Western Australia	Alma having lunch with a fellow traveler on the train
The desert on the approaches to Perth	Cook, a former watering stop along the railroad line
Cook (Pop. 2) is now almost a ghost town	Along the longest stretch of straight track in the world
No, I didn’t take this shot as we crossed the desert. It’s a tourism file photo	The desert gold mining mining town of Kalgoorlie, Western Australia
Alma in corridor of  the Indian Pacific train       Alma during a brief stop in desert hamlet	Bill in front of an old Gaol in Fremantle, W.A.
Walking around Fremantle in Western Australia	Walking along the dunes near Margaret River
Train ride out a long pier into the Indian Ocean	Southern Ocean one way, Indian Ocean the other
Tasting wine in Margaret River vineyard	A rain forest in Western Australia
Bill climbing up a giant gum tree in Western Australia forest	Tree-top walk lets you look down on top of big trees   Alma on a slightly precarious catwalk above the tree tops
On a whale-watching trip off Albany, Western Australia	A whale swims up to our boat for a better look at us
The rugged coastline of Western Australia	The whale actually nudged our boat in fun
Some great old houses built by early settlers in W.A.	Perth, the capital of Western Australia
We stumbled across a remote Spanish monastery	Another view of Perth from an observation tower

Return to the Home Page